The present invention relates to an article delivery transferring device in a collective packing machine having a sequential operation control system. Articles are fed continuously at regular intervals and in predetermined amounts from a main packing machine (front packing machine) in continuous operation to an auxiliary packing machine (rear packing machine) actuated when articles in the required number are received. After completing one cycle of auxiliary packing the auxiliary packing machine is stopped at a definite position.
An article delivery transferring device in a collective packing machine of stop waiting control system in the prior art is shown in FIGS. 5 through 7.
In the prior art device, a plurality of in-line articles 3 stacked in two levels are fed from a main packing machine 1 to a conveyor plate 2 at regular intervals and then pushed with a pusher 4 of the main packing machine 1 onto an article conveying path 5 on the conveyor plate 2. This process is repeated and articles are transferred by pushing in sequence onto the article conveying path 5. When an article 3 on the top level abuts a stopper 6 and is thereby detected with a transfer completion detecting sensor 7, the detected signal actuates a lifting and turning plate 8 that moves upwards to lift the articles 3 of n lines (e.g., n=5 as shown in FIG. 6). A feed pusher 9 projects and pushes the articles at the upper limit and feeds them onto a packing path 11 of an auxiliary packing machine 10 as shown in FIG. 7. After transferring the articles, the feed pusher 9 returns to its FIG. 7 position. Simultaneously, lifting and turning plate 8 rotates 90 degrees in a horizontal plane into the phantom line position of FIG. 5; plate 8 is then lowered and then rotated 90 degrees back to its said line position as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 and stopped at the original position below the conveyor plate 2. Thus the articles 3 in two stages by five lines are packed in collective packing at the conveying path.
In such an article delivery transferring device in a collective packing machine of sequential operation control system in the prior art, relation between time t.sub.A1 (or rotation angle A.sub.1 degree) while the article 3 on the top line abuts on the stopper 6 and is detected by the transfer finishing detecting sensor 7 and the lifting and turning plate 8 begins to move upwards and attains to level where the bottom surface of the lifting and turning plate 8 does not interfere with feeding of the articles 3 and time t.sub.A2 (or rotation angle A.sub.2 degree) while the article 3 is fed and pushed by the pusher 4 and abuts on the article 3 at front line which is transferred at pushed state must be as follows: EQU t.sub.A2 &gt;t.sub.A1
This condition applies not only to the transferring structure at pushed state in the prior art. The relation between the time t.sub.A1 for the lifting and turning plate 8 to attain to level where interference does not occur and the time t.sub.A2 for the subsequent article 3 to be fed restricts any transferring structure.
If this restriction is not satisfied, at the lifting operation of the articles 3 by the lifting and turning plate 8 the article 3 on 6th line ((n+1)th line in the case of packing at n lines) collides with the top end of the lifting and turning plate 8 obstructing smooth operation.
Since the stop waiting operation control system has disadvantage of being not suitable for high speed operation, if continuous operation is intended to eliminate such disadvantage, possibility of continuous operation must be determined regarding whether or not the article 3 on 5th line (nth line in the case of collective packing at n lines) comes to the auxiliary packing machine 10, whether or not the auxiliary packing machine is in region to enable the continuous operation required in mechanism, and whether or not the auxiliary packing machine 10 is in stop region at definite position required in mechanism. In order to advance high speed operation further and obtain accuracy in the possibility decision, it is required that the decision may be performed early with time margin.
In the transferring structure at pushed state in the prior art, however, decision may be performed only by detection of the article 3 at the projection stroke position of the pusher 4 or the transferring operation at pushed state. If possibility of the continuous operation is determined after confirming the feed state of the product 3 from the main packing machine 1, the high speed operation is limited naturally in time relation and the decision is apt to become inaccurate and false decision may occur.
Further in the transferring structure at pushed state, position of the pushed article is apt to become inaccurate, and when the articles are transferred at stacked state in several stages, e.g. two stages, trouble such as the stage misalignment is apt to occur and therefore disadvantage exists also in mechanism.